Hitting Bedrock
by markaleen
Summary: What if Elaine had been the one to bring Alex his money in the episode Alex Goes Off The Wagon? One-shot.


**This story is told in Elaine's POV.**

* * *

I couldn't believe it, Alex was back on gambling. It literally happened overnight. You see, he'd been missing for quite some time. No one could reach him on his radio. I was sure that he was in trouble. I was so worried that I even tried calling the police. Pfft, some help they were. First, I was put on hold for what felt like forever, and then when I told them that he'd been missing for fifteen hours, they told me to call back when he'd been gone for twenty four. I was so angry; I hung up with a slam and a slap of the phone. I may have gotten a bit hysterical… but I had every right to be. Then Tony came in telling us that Alex wasn't at home either. Luckily, he'd seen a cop across the street so he went to go get him. When Louie told him not to tell the cop that he'd 'only' been gone for fifteen hours, I asked him if he was worried. When he answered yes, I was sure Alex was dead. I completely lost it. I sobbed and ran to him for comfort (just goes to show you how upset I was). Not too long after—much to my relief—I heard Alex's voice saying, "Hi guys…" I pushed a clinging Louie off of me and ran to Alex. I cupped his face with my hands and just looked at him. He was pretty confused and asked what was going on. All I could do was shush him and smother him with kisses. I then let go and hit his shoulders as I cried, "How come you didn't call us, huh? I've been worried sick about you! How the hell could you do that to us?" I'd be lying if I said I didn't feel disheartened by his response. He didn't seem to care about how upset I was. He told us that his radio wasn't working and that he had to take a fare to Atlantic City. As a tip, he received two hundred dollars; and even though he knew that he had a problem, he gambled. Fortunately, it had worked out for him because he came home with two thousand dollars. He was proud of himself for walking away while he was still hot. Unfortunately, Louie was not so proud. Despite my warnings, Alex allowed himself to be convinced by Louie to go out and gamble again. I tried to warn him one more time and he replied with annoyance in his voice, "Don't mother me." _Fine. _I was stunned. "I won't." I concluded as I walked away. I hate gambling so much. My ex-husband gambled, so I absolutely hated seeing Alex doing the same.

So I sat idly by while I knew Alex was squandering all his money. Nobody can stay hot forever. Later on that evening I received a call from him. I knew by the tone of his voice that he was disappointed that I answered. I didn't care. "So, is your life in shambles yet?" I asked. He replied that he came out about even. Assumingly, I questioned if he was home, to which he answered he was at a 'funny out of the way place'. He proceeded to ask if Tony was around. "There's no one around but Jim and me." I answered. He asked for Jim. I called him over to Louie's cage where I was holding the phone. I stayed around to see if I could gather why Alex was **really **calling. He couldn't fool me; something was up. I watched as Jim ran back and forth between the phone and Alex's locker. There was no doubt about it now, Alex had lost all his money.

Once he was off the phone, I called Jim out as he went through Alex's locker. "You're getting money for him, aren't you?"

"No, no, no. Not money, crackers." he replied.

I gave him a look, "Crackers? He called you late at night just so you can bring him crackers?"

Panic entered his voice, "Hey, what business of mine is it if he wants crackers?"

After giving him a blank look for a second or two, I grabbed the cracker box from his hands. Inside of it, I found an envelope stuffed with money. "I knew it."

"Elaine, please. He doesn't want you to know about this."

"I know he doesn't!" I accidentally shouted. I wasn't mad at Jim or even Alex for that matter. I was more scared for him than anything. "Look…" I began in a calmer voice, "Let me bring the money to him. Please?" I pleaded.

Hesitantly, he answered, "I don't know, Elaine… he'll be pretty upset with both of us."

Quickly, I assured, "I'll make sure he knows that I insisted. I'll tell him you have nothing to do with my being there." He was still reluctant, but I managed to get the information I needed in the end. Before I left, I thought about putting half of the money back in his locker. That way, if I couldn't convince him to save it, he wouldn't be completely broke; but I thought against it. No, I didn't want to watch him lose every penny he had, but if he was going to **really **kick this gambling habit, he needed to hit rock bottom.

"Elaine, what on earth are you doing here?" he questioned, completely stunned.

"I came to take you home." I plainly answered.

Ignoring my statement, he then asked, "Where's Jim?"

"He isn't coming." He started to react, but I stopped him. "Don't blame him, Alex. He didn't want to tell me where you were but I dragged it out of him. So, I take it you didn't come out about even then, hmm?"

"Okay, I lied. You win. You were right: I lost all my money. Are you happy?"

I expected this sort of retort. "No," I answered. "But I will be happy if you leave with me right now." I tried taking his hand, but he pulled back. "I'm not leaving, Elaine. Now please, please, please tell me that Jim gave you an envelope."

Pulling the envelope from my sleeve, I replied, "He did." as I handed it to him. He nearly pulled my hand off as he grabbed it from me and pulled out half of the money.

Handing the envelope with the other half back to me, he commanded, "Take this and do not give it to me no matter how much I beg. See, I'm being responsible."

I rolled my eyes, "No, being responsible would be walking out of here right now with both halves of the money."

He shook his head, "Not when I **know **I'm going to win this next round."

I let him go to the table and bet all of that money in one go; I also watched him lose it. After cursing and slamming the table, he slumped back over to me. "We're leaving now." I said I started towards the door, but he pulled me back by my arm and demanded I give him the rest of the money. I continued to say no as he begged and begged. "Dammit, Elaine!" he yelled. "It's my money and I'll do what I want with it!"

With that, I shoved the money into his hands. As he walked back to the betting table I warned, "Don't you dare blame me when you lose that money."

"I won't." he scoffed. "And you're gonna look foolish when I **win**."

Yet again, he risked and lost it all in one bet. Avoiding eye contact with me, he rushed to the bathroom and kicked the door behind him. I daringly followed. "Leave me alone, Elaine." He was slouched head down in a corner, but he didn't have to look up to know it was me. "You can't be in here anyways; this is the men's room.

"I don't care."

"Clearly." he grumbled.

I then slouched down next to him. "Are you alright?"

Abruptly, he stood up. "Don't give me that, okay? Just don't give me that!"

I then stood as well, "I'm not giving you anything."

Rolling his eyes, he ranted, "Yes you are. Don't give me pretend compassion. I know that inside you're gloating, 'I told you so, I told you so'."

"I am not gloating." Okay… so I kind of was; but I'd get to that later. "Are you ready to go home now?"

"I'm not going home, Elaine."

"Why not?"

Again he sat, this time in a chair, and replied, "I'm just not."

"What, do you think that by hanging around here you'll magically come across more money?"

Taking a moment before answering, he shrugged, "I'll never know unless I stay here, will I?"

I wasn't sure how to response, so I bought myself some time as I slowly walked over and knelt down beside him. "You need to go home and rest… you aren't going to find any more money. You're finished."

He shot me a disapproving look, but then I noticed he was eyeing my purse—another thing I had expected. For some reason he refuses to comprehend and remember that I've dealt with compulsive gamblers before, I knew almost every trick in the book; he was no match for me. I took all of the money out of my wallet before I got to the casino. With a sigh, he sat up saying, "Maybe you're right…" I watched him carefully. He stood up and held out his hand to help me up. "Guess we should go." Taking his hand I stood up with an 'okay'. Just before we got to the door, he turned to me, "I want to thank you for coming here and trying to help." Playing along, I replied as he hugged me, "You're welcome." I waited to feel him reach into my purse, but to my surprise he didn't. Instead, he looked into my eyes and said, "You know… this lighting makes you look particularly beautiful." _Ahhh… _so this was going to be his approach. At least he knows I'm too smart to fall for a simple hug. _Two can play at this game. _

"Really?" I breathed.

"Really…" he responded. "You know… I've had kind of a… well a downright terrible night. I don't think I should be alone."

_Oh please. _I couldn't make it too obvious that I was on to him, so I stepped back. "Alex… what are you doing?"

Again, he came closer. "Elaine, please stay with me—just for tonight—I don't trust myself not to do something stupid."

"I don't mind staying with you as a friend, Alex, but you seem to have something more in mind." I 'panicked'. Running his fingers through my hair, he admitted, "I'd be lying if I said I didn't; but please humor me, Elaine."

I walked away from him once again. "Alex, no. I can't. There's too much at stake and you're already in a terrible frame of mind. I wouldn't feel right, not for a minute." This was starting to sound like a cheesy movie or something, but he persisted, so I continued to play along.

I watched him come up from behind me in the mirror. While wrapping his arms around my waist he muffled slightly into my neck, "I won't hold anything against you. And there isn't anything at stake here, we've done this once, we can do it again no problem."

He gently planted a few kisses on my neck, this worked to my advantage though: it made it a **lot** easier to act turned on. What? I'm still human. "Alex…" I paused as he turned me to face him, and I then finished, "That was a completely different situation."

"Please, Elaine… **please**?" Before I could answer, he pulled me in to a kiss—a big kiss. I'll admit, I sort of got into it. Can you blame me? This time, he reached into my purse and pulled out my wallet. I pretended not to notice as I held him tighter. Shortly after taking what he thought was a wallet full of money, he pulled away. To tease him, I said, out of breath, "Let's go to your place."

Covering his face with one hand and 'discreetly' putting the wallet in his pocket with the other, he back away from me and moaned, "Oh… Elaine, you're right. We can't do this. I'm sorry, you're right, you're right, you're right; this would be a huge mistake. It'd completely put a strain on our friendship. Gosh, I'm so embarrassed. I think I'm just going to go. I'm sorry."

As he rushed for the door, I managed to conjure up some tears. I weakly sat on the chair by the sink and forced myself not to curiously look at the door to see if he'd come back. I didn't hear any footsteps for several seconds, and just as I was about to quit 'crying', I heard him softly say my name. "What is it?" I whimpered.

Tentatively, he walked over to me. "A-Are you okay?" As I rubbed my eyes, I whined, "I'm fine." I stood up and started for the door.

"Okay…" he said quietly. I thought he'd stop me before I left, but he didn't. I then figured he'd stay in the restroom to count the money he thought he took from me, so I stood aside and waited. Surely enough a minute later he came running out looking for me; and of course he ran right passed me. "Oh, Alex?" I called with my arms crossed. He came running back, speechless. "I take it you're wondering why my wallet is empty, huh?" I interrogated. Growing angry, he threw the wallet down and stormed back into the bathroom. Yet again, I followed after picking it up. "Alex-" cutting me off he said abruptly, "How did you know? You knew before you even got here, didn't you? You toyed with me!"

"**I **toyed with **you**?" I huffed.

"Yes!" he shouted. "I can't believe you'd try to make me feel so guilty."

"Oh, so had you really lead me on, and had you really taken my money, and had you really made me cry you wouldn't have felt guilty?"

He froze a moment, I was waiting for him to yell, but what he did instead caught me off guard: he collapsed into tears. "Oh Elaine, you're right. I don't know what's wrong with me! Twenty four hours ago I was a strong and safe gambler and now I'm flat broke and turning into a monster."

This was no longer an act. I wrapped my arms around him and lead him to the chair to sit down. "It's going to be okay." I assured, but he continued to weep, "How would you know?"

"Because, now that you've hit rock bottom it can only get better."

Rolling his eyes, he scoffed, "Oh please."

"I'm serious. Tonight has been your last night of gambling. Sometime in the future when you feel compelled to gamble again you'll look back on this moment and you'll remember how terrible you're feeling right now. You're tired, you're weak, you're anxious, you're depressed, you're scared, you're desperate, you're broke, you're feeling hopeless, and you were willing to use and hurt someone you care for and who cares very much about you. You'll think back on all of this and you'll walk away."

Looking up at me he wiped his eyes. "You really still care about me? Even after everything I did and said?"

"I'd still care even if I hadn't been on to what you were doing."

Weakly, he stood up and held on to me tightly. I comforted him as he cried a bit longer. Once he was calmer, I brushed the tears from his face and said, "Come on, I'm going to take you home."

He simply nodded as I took his hand. Before we were out the door, he stated, "I do have one question though."

"What's that?"

"If you don't have any money and I don't have any money, how are we getting home? Unless you took one of the cabs?"

Without a word I pulled out a small wad of cash from my shirt and held it up. In response, he managed a chuckle. "I should have known."

I grinned, "Hey, I was prepared for anything. If you were so desperate to get money from me, I was gonna make you work for it." I winked.

Again he chuckled, and then he muttered as we started walking again, "Elaine?"

"Yeah?"

"Thank you... for everything."

I timidly smiled, "Any time."

The end.


End file.
